And then it hit. The death of memory. We could no longer remember phone numbers. The theory is, is that the current phone number system is so sucessful is that the humanbrain can memorize seven things at one, or in this case, an item with seven differentcomponents. The brain, like any other thing in the body, can atrophy (as it has with many people, but that's the topic of anothernode).

So what became a good idea, eventually crippled us into a family consisting of people who remembered their aunt's number simply as memory-0-6. It was terrible. We joked about not being able to call home in an emergency. I to this day, have trouble remembering my grandmother's number from the experience. I vowed to myself that I wouldn't use speed dial for anything ever again. That is of course, until i got a cell phone....